The Karma Circle: The Last Dance
by SaintHeartwing
Summary: She just wants to get to her high school dance. But all is not what it seems with this strange girl called "Tak"...


The night air was hot, heavy and deeply foul, permeating every inch of space as he slowly drove the car, his expression quiet and thoughtful behind his glasses. Matty Membrane's amber/golden eyes quietly blinked as he stared over the wheel of the car, looking at the edge of the road, certain he could see-

Yes. Yes, there she was! She had distinct purplish hair, rather pale skin, and rather lovely, deep purple eyes. She was wearing a deep purple dress as well, with beautifully glittering sparkles that ran up and down it, dark black high heels, fancy-pancy black silk gloves to match, and she had pearl earrings...earrings of dark black pearls, as rare as could be. She had faint purple lipstick too, and her voice had a distinct British accent as well as she looked into the car, tilting her head a bit to the side as he pulled up to her.

"Hello, I'm...I'm trying to get to Philly High School." The British-accented pale beauty intoned. "Would you be a dear and give me a ride?" She inquired of the young man, his own skin somewhat pale as he nodded and pushed the door open for her to climb on into the passenger door.

"Sure. Hope on in, I can give you a ride." He offered, seeing, off in the distance, the winding road would eventually lead to an enormous bridge that overlooked the thick-banked, winding river far below. On his phone he swiped up, getting rid of some notes that read "Sometimes will give a name, (Tak) usually does not answer, looks off, witnesses keep forgetting everything she said, she has distinct British accent". He kept driving the car down the road, looking briefly at her. "I'm Matty Membrane."

"Oh. A Membrane. Thought you looked familiar. You have your father's eyes."

"You know my dad?" He remarked. "What's your name?"

She looked out the window, Matty sighing. "S'okay. You don't gotta tell me anythin', miss." He remarked as they approached the bridge, and he began to slow the car down.

"Why are you slowing down?" Tak inquired. "I have to get to that dance tonight."

"Because I know exactly what'll happen when I cross this bridge. You'll vanish." Matty said, slowly turning to look at Tak as she stared out the window, her face hidden from him. "No matter WHO you get in the car with, you're never still there when they reach the other side. I also know your name's Tak. Ever since I got my license, I've tried drivin' out here a thousand billion times just to see you. I wanna know what happened on that night you went to your high school dance. Not just cuz it's my school, but because...I know who you rode to the dance with. My dad's sister, Aunt Gazlene. Dib told me all about you."

Tak visibly stiffened.

"I'd heard stories about your ghost appearing from other kids in school, around the neighborhood, and then...from him. He thought he saw you at the edge of the road, but you vanished before he could ask you what happened to you. He's never forgotten you, even after he married Gretchen." Matty added quietly as he put his hands in his lap and sighed. "He really missed you. He knew you and Gaz were together, but he never forgot you. So I thought I'd try my luck."

"...and Gaz?"

"She's still alive, yeah. They're both, like, 70, but they're still alive."

"What did Gaz tell you?"

"She said she stopped by the bridge, and you'd started talking about how...how dumb and stupid and "normal" the high school dance was. So it'd be funner to toss rocks at passing cars by the cliff edge near the bridge. She said you fell. And she jumped in and...couldn't find you."

Tak was silent for what seemed to be a very, very long time. Then at last, she slooooowly turned her face, her eyes shifting, the irises and pupils changing color. What had been royal purple began to slowly dissolve away into absolute dark black, an empty void of pure inescapable nothingness from which, bit by bit, a scene began to play out, a scene that Matty could now see as clearly as if he was actually there.

 ** _"Last Dance with Mary Jane...one more night to feel the pain!"_**

 _"Well this song's ironic." Tak had said, tilting her head a bit to the side, frowning slightly, dressed up in her holographic disguise. The Irken alien had been going out with Gazlene for quite some time now, despite Dibbun's charming attempts to woo her. It slightly tickled her fancy to see him going a bit crazy over the knowledge she was going steady with his sister._

 _"Not really, it's about pot." Gaz remarked, blowing some blunt smoke out of her nearby window as the dark cloudy overcast sky obscured all light from any stars or moon high above. Gaz came to a stop by the overlook near the bridge. "C'mon, the dance is boring, normal-kid crud. Let's do something fun like tossing rocks at cars that come by the bridge." She insisted. "I also got this fancy beer." She added, going to the backseat, getting out a big, red and white container and pulling out a large bottle of beer with several glasses and some ice._

 _Tak stepped out of the car, looking out over the large expanse. From the overlook, you could see almost the entire river, almost the whole valley, and the far-off, distance, glimmering lights of Philly. "It's rather pretty out here, though it's far too humid." She remarked, not seeing that Gaz had slipped something into the beer cup she was going to give to her. She turned, seeing the amber/golden eyes of Gaz approaching her in the dark, the purple-haired girl holding up the cup as she took it and sniffed it. "BLECH. Smells awful. Anything to mix it with?"_

 _"It's better pure." Gaz insisted, swigging right from the bottle with a toothy, pearly grin, her hair that deep shade of purple, looking faintly like a gaping mouth trying to engulf her head as Tak sniffed at the cup again and noticed it was bubbling faintly. She didn't like this. Gaz nonchalantly twirled a lock of one of her hair, her deep, black and red dress a-glitter in the night as she tilted her head a bit. "C'mon, live a little."_

 _"I dunno. I think we should just go to the dance, I mean, we can toss rocks at cars anytime." Tak began to say._

 _"I suck at dancing." Gaz nonchalantly remarked, getting uncomfortably close to Tak, putting her arms around her and smooching her. "C'monnnn. Why don't we do it in the road?" She sang out, trying to imitate the old Beatles song._

 _"Gaz, stop, I'm really not in the mood." Tak remarked, stepping back a bit as Gaz "harrumphed" and tried to approach her, to grab hold of her shoulder._

 _"Oh why you gotta be such a party pooper? You're sounding like DIB! C'monnn, we got to third base before, why do you care-"_

 _But then when Tak wrenched her dress out of Gaz's grip, she accidentally stepped too far back, and onto a chunk of the overlook that wasn't very strong..._

 _And it gave way. Tak let out a scream, falling down, down, cascading down the rocky edge of the overlook, and bouncing around like a broken, fleshy rag doll. A few moments later, she came to a horrific, shuddering, wet final stop, and Gaz gaped before slowly making her way down._

 _"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Oh shit, if she's dead I am fucked, I...no, no, keep calm, keep calm, this isn't your fault!" Gaz thought out loud, poor Tak's true form now laid bare, green, with faintly scaly skin, her black antannae bent...one curly antannae snapped off. Her three-digited clawed hands twitched, her knees and head bent at an odd angle, her voice a throaty, hoarse, ravaged whisper._

 _"H-Help...g-ge...D...Dib..."_

 _Gaz cringed...then lifted Tak's body up...and began tugging her out into the river._

 _"I can't do that. Ya wouldn't make it anyway, Tak. I can't let anyone know. I didn't mean to." She remarked, finally letting go of Tak as her form sank down...down..._

 _Down..._

"You broke down where? Oh that place. Yeah, yeah, I know where it is." Gaz remarked, sighing as she sat up in her chair, putting down her copy of "Game Guru Magazine". Alas, her fingers were no longer quite the refined gamer-senses they once were, but she still was aptly following all the latest gaming news. It drove Zim mad, he hated being billed for the dumb magazine, but the Gaz-Beast TERRIFIED him, and he didn't dare object.

Gaz tilted her head a bit, nonchalantly scratching her chin with a pointed purple nail. "Why don't you just ask your dad?" She grunted.

"I promised him I'd take care of the car, if I don't get it back in good condition, he'll never lemme take it out again. Pretty PLEASE, Aunt Gaz? I'll buy you that documentary on the making of "Shadows of the Hellbeast"?"

"Okay, okay, hold your horses. I'm comin'." Aunt Gaz sighed, getting up and off of Zim's big, fat purple couch, heading out of the door and getting in her car, turning the "Spotty" music streaming service on.

 _ **"Last Dance with Mary Jane, one more night to feel the pain..."**_

"Geez, and to think I used to LIKE this dumb song." Gaz grunted, rolling her eyes as she turned onto the road that led towards the bridge, the stars, at long last, slowly beginning to poke their heads out of the thick blanket of clouds that obscured the night sky high above. She could faintly see, off in the distance, a figure by the road. "Alright, alright, here I come. Fuck, drag me all the way up here at night, I swear, he's as annoying as my stupid brother sometimes..." She grunted, finally coming to a halt.

"Oh good. You came." Matt said, his tone...odd. Rough. As if suppressing something.

"Is the engine not turning over?" Gaz asked, going to the popped hood and looking inside as Matty turned, nodding, and Gaz suddenly stiffened a bit, hearing someone approaching, stepping over the grass, and she rose up. She turned her head, her eyes slowly growing wider and wider as the hot, humid night air became cold as ice, a sickening, foul stench permeating her nostrils as Matty Membrane's tone became bitter and baleful.

"I always knew something was wrong with that story. I HATE myself for enjoying it when I was little. I told it to all my friends, Aunt Gaz. Told it to them for years, trying to make you out to be a heroine when everyone kept saying awful things about you. Kept trying to convince them you'd done all you could..." He muttered.

Tak was now right in front of Gaz, her skin partially decayed, bones rotting and visible upon one huge hunk of chest. Her antannae were still bent and broken, her body sopping wet, neck tilted at that foul, unnatural angle, but her eyes glittered and sizzled with a terrifying, dark light, a DEAD light as she grinned a toothy, fanged grin.

"Good news, Gaz. You found her." Matty Membrane darkly growled, stepping away from the car, and watching. Watching as she seized the screamed, terrified, screeching Gaz by the neck, forcibly dragging her down, down into the rocky cliff side below...

...

...

...

..."Five years. Five years since it happened. And you're sure that...?"

"I don't know what else to tell you, Dad. It was unusual, I guess. Aunt Gaz always avoided even driving that road. I don't think she ever got over Tak's death. Still, she said she didn't wanna die in a hospital, in pain. Maybe it was Aunt Gaz's way of making it up to Tak at last. I dunno. She didn't leave a note."

"...been five years and no sighting." Dib Membrane quietly intoned, looking out onto the starry, starry night, and he let out a single sigh.

"...I guess she finally made it to the dance."


End file.
